Bioethanol Production from Palmyrah Molasses Using Saccharomyces Spp.omyces Spp.
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Date
2014
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Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Molasses is the waste material obtained from the production of palmyrah sugar candy could be used for alcohol production through fermentation process there by it reduces the production cost of sugar candy. The aim of the study was to select the suitable yeast species and optimize the fermentation conditions to produce ethanol from molasses. The best yeast strain for fermentation was selected according to their alcohol tolerance and growth on molasses using cell density. Molasses was undergone for the chemical analysis (brix, total sugar, reducing sugar, pH, total acidity and alcohol) which was used as fermentation medium .Optimization of fermentation was carried out with different
initial brix (5, 10, 20, 30, 40 °Brix), inoculum size (1, 2, 3, 4 ml), pH (4, 4.5, 5, 5.5,
6, 6.5) and temperature (30, 35, 45, 55 °C), Each treatments were conducted with
triplicate under controlled environment. The absorbance 1.016 and 1.576 were obtained as highest cell density per ml for 8.5 % of alcohol and growth on molasses respectively, the selected best yeast strain was used for the fermentation study. The initial brix, pH, total sugar and reducing sugar of the raw molasses was 58.73. °Brix
4.5, 62.39 and 8.06 % respectively while the alcohol content was nil. Significantly Brix 10° and inoculum size of 3 ml were selected as optimum at 3rd and 6th day of fermentation with mean value of alcohol percentage 2.6 and 4.4 respectively among the different treatment. Significantly highest alcohol percentage of 4.6, 4.8 was obtained at 5th 4th day of fermentation at optimum pH 4.5 and temperature 35 °C respectively.
There were significant decreases in total solids during the fermentation of all the treatments. Bioethanol production from palmyrah molasses could be enhanced by the optimization of fermentation condition using the selected yeast strain.
Key Words: Ethanol, Molasses, Palmyrah, Yeast, Fermentation
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Palm and Latex Technology and Value Addition Degree Programme ( PLT)